Friday, January 1, 2016

Unite Warriors Devastator

Facing one's mortality can sometimes make a person act strangely. Some may withdraw into themselves and become depressed, while others may become overly jubilant. Or there could be a mixture of the two. I was definitely a mixture of the two and the result of the jubilation is Unite Warriors Devastator. About a month before my heart attack, I made a conscious decision to sell off my CHUG collection, with the exception of a few figures that I really liked, and just focus on Masterpiece and G1 only. This meant cancelling the preorder that I made for Takara's Devastator, which I did in earnest. Then the heart attack happened. During the euphoric, glad-to-be-alive phase that I was in, I reinstated the preorder on Devastator, which then came instock something like two hours later. After waiting for the guy to show up, I was pleased with myself.

I'm not going to go into a ton of detail on each of the Constructicons. The Hasbro versions have been out for quite some time, and I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the re-tooling that Takara did with each figure. What I will do is give my impression of the individual figures and then go on to Devastator.

Hook was always my favorite Constructicon as a kid. Then again, I also broke every Hook I touched back then. The G1 version was just not built to hold up to rough play. 2015 Hook? This guy is a dream. He looks very close to the G1 animation model, and he features the articulation that my old toy never had. Knees that bend! Elbows that bend! His head turns! One thing that the G1 figure has over this newer version is the telescoping crane arm. Small gripe, I know.

Up next - Long Haul! Through the years, I've seen different interpretations with this guy in regards to size. Since he's a dump truck, I never had a problem with him being the same size as the rest of his team, but he's apparently been upgraded to a mining dump truck because he's freaking huge now. In robot mode, he's pretty stocky, but it's a look Long Haul wears well. Looking at him, you can definitely tell that he forms Devastator's waist.

Even with the bulk, Long Haul is able to pull off some nice poses. As a matter of fact, he's one of the two Constructicons to feature waist articulation. And behold - walking pose!

As a kid, Bonecrusher was my favorite Constructicon. The bulldozer mode just did so much for me back then. I remember running him through dirt and Play-Doh and then having to spend a good deal of time cleaning him up every time I played with him. This new version is quite possibly my favorite of the set, and I'm sure that nostalgia plays a pretty good sized role in that. I really like the purple fists.

The ankle tilts and improved knee joints do wonders for Bonecrusher. And I'm really liking the purple on the legs/treads. I'm not 100% sold on the kibble hanging off the back, but overall, this is a great figure.

I was never fond of Scrapper, and I don't think I ever will be. He looks cool, but he just always grated on me in the cartoons.

I love this pose, however. Scrapper's been lifting weights.

Hey, it's that guy that shot Prowl on the shuttle! Purple treads look so much better than black. Also, that gun looks better than the missile pod or whatever Devastator's hand is supposed to turn into. There's still something about Scavenger that doesn't sit too well with me, aesthetically. After spending an inordinate amount of time staring at Scavenger, I still can't put my finger on it. Is it the face? The fact that he seems to be a literal translation from AutoCad straight to plastic? I'm not sure, but the more I look at him, the less I like him. Oh, well, on to other things.

My only quibble with Mixmaster is the drum on his back. It is so honking huge. But those elbows, though. Who doesn't like elbows? The ankle tilts are an amazing touch.

Group Shot!

Ok, now that all of that is out of the way, let's get to Devastator.

I knew that he was going to be big, but I didn't realize just how big. When I assembled this behemoth, I was taken aback by his size, and not just the height. Devastator is bulky. He's massive. He's freaking imposing. I didn't think he'd be so - so damn wide.

He's pretty poseable, to boot; certainly more than the other Combiner Wars guys. Stability isn't even sacrificed for the added poseability. I'd show that, but the pictures I took turned out horribly.

The eye gimmick pretty neat. I had assumed that it would work like Metroplex's, but I find what Takara did much better.

Devastator's forehead flips up and the visor just folds into the forehead.

Once that is accomplished, simply push Devastator's forehead down and you now have a Devastator with two eyes!

I'm still trying to decide which look I prefer, but I am leaning towards the visor.

Do you know what I find amazing? That people are spending money on 3rd party upgrade kits for this guy. Is that really necessary? Do people really think that Prowl's head looks better up there? As far as I'm concerned, this is the perfect Devastator and the extra's aren't needed. Not even to cover Mixmaster's foot.